“Hot Seat”

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Struddles&Trubinsky

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How do you tell if a rider has a ”hot seat”?
In all the 20 years I’ve never been described as having had one but a passing comment while riding a new horse has made me question myself. Before I consider it being the ”green“ horse with a change of routine, I want to check/correct myself first.

How do you spot yourself having one? And how do you correct yourself to be more neutral?
I’ve always felt I’ve adapted quite well and been told that I’m a quiet rider but I guess every new horse brings on a different set of learnings.
For context the horse has always been a happy plod along hacker with little schooling (I have seen the calmness on a hack countless times) however since I’ve ridden him, he’s been very forward and I have little brakes (hence thinking I’m the cause). I’m not a novice rider and have ridden horses for over 20years but I’m feeling a little rusty in knowing what else I can adapt to help gel with the new horse.

Tips and tricks to work on my riding style would be very welcome but please, Kind responses only!
Thank you
 
I too have been told that I have a hot seat. In the context that RS horses always cantered easilly for me and yet did not for other students.
I reckon this is because I was taught to canter by relaxing and breathing and thinking the rhythm. Horses know if students enjoy canter and are more likely tio offer it to riders who do. But relaxing also makes it easier for the horse to flow forwards. I was told by a good RI that the horses went on cantering for me because my legs were so relaxed that they were brushing against the sides of the horse at every stride and that was felt by the horse as a leg aid to canter on.
To slow it, restrict the swing of the barrel of the horse by pressing your legs against its sides. Half halt with the reins but dont pull on them as that gives the horse something to lean on.
I currently share a horse with a very bumpy canter and I need to lift my seat from her saddle. With most horses this increases the canter speed, but with her it does the opposite and gives me more control.
 
Struddles&Trubinsky said:
How do you tell if a rider has a ”hot seat”?
In all the 20 years I’ve never been described as having had one but a passing comment while riding a new horse has made me question myself. Before I consider it being the ”green“ horse with a change of routine, I want to check/correct myself first.

How do you spot yourself having one? And how do you correct yourself to be more neutral?
I’ve always felt I’ve adapted quite well and been told that I’m a quiet rider but I guess every new horse brings on a different set of learnings.
For context the horse has always been a happy plod along hacker with little schooling (I have seen the calmness on a hack countless times) however since I’ve ridden him, he’s been very forward and I have little brakes (hence thinking I’m the cause). I’m not a novice rider and have ridden horses for over 20years but I’m feeling a little rusty in knowing what else I can adapt to help gel with the new horse.

Tips and tricks to work on my riding style would be very welcome but please, Kind responses only!
Thank you
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Has the horse been ridden by many other people previously or is he used to the one rider? If he's used to the one person then he may just be testing you as he gets used to someone new.

If he's used to many different riders, what is he like at the moment with other people when hacking out? Not having brakes on a previously ploddy horse to me would then suggest a new issue with the horse, perhaps pain-related, rather than because of a new rider.
 
As an aside to answering questions about what a hot seat is and how you'd know, is the person who made the comment someone you would go to for advice?

If this person is experienced, skilled and someone yoi respect then ask them your questions. They have the advantage of knowing you, the horse and has seen your ride.

If this absolutely isn't someone that tou would go to for help or advice then don't let their opinion get to you.

As you're at an RS why not speak to an instructor you like and perhaps book a private lesson on this horse to have time focused on you alone to figure it out.
 
I just don’t believe in the bullshit of hot seat. It’s about energy - your own energy with the horse and confidence. It’s also about competence and riding skill.

Riding school horses are effectively taught to ignore every single one of their instincts and become switched off so probably nice for them to have someone balanced and competent.
 
If it's a school horse, he could well just be responding for someome knowing what they're doing, or knowing they can take the pee a little more. School horses know every trick in the book ;)

ETS: doesn't necesarily need to be a school horse to respond well to better aids or confidence from the person on top.
 
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teapot said:
If it's a school horse, he could well just be responding for someome knowing what they're doing, or knowing they can take the pee a little more. School horses know every trick in the book ;)
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That one was a mare :)

eta - this is odd. Did you change your post teapot?
 
I've always been told I have a hot bum/electric bum. But I always put it down to insisting the horse is in front of the leg and on the aids. Now I'm not as strong as I used to be I find it harder to get the same results.

Maybe your just more assertive than the previous rider or your inadvertently pressing the 'go' buttons more firmly than previous rider?

Then the brakes issue could be as simple as the previous rider has schooled him to their aids rather than universal aids. My friends horse only slows down in a canter if she's on a loose rein, which seems very backwards to me. But that's what works for her. I don't enjoy riding her mare at all as I don't know what the buttons do!
 
I have the opposite of a hot seat (I sit quietly, don't have much leg and hate a strong contact) so I tend to stick to horses that my (low) energy level works for.
 
LEC said:
I just don’t believe in the bullshit of hot seat. It’s about energy - your own energy with the horse and confidence. It’s also about competence and riding skill.

Riding school horses are effectively taught to ignore every single one of their instincts and become switched off so probably nice for them to have someone balanced and competent.
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This

You’re just riding them better than they’re used to and so they go better.

Now the instructor needs to teach you how to harness that energy you’re creating! It’s called connection. From you to the horse (and back again)
 
I was told I had a hot seat as a child.

We'd been living in Germany where I'd been riding highly schooled mini warmbloods and I just expected the UK riding school ponies to go the same. The poor things didn't know what was going on.

That probably continued until I worked in Aus and had to adapt my riding to on the buckle types.

I've watched some very experienced riders get a result from a more whoa than go type by just expecting it to go forward.
 
I'm not familiar with the term "hot seat" and still not sure how it differs from a "neutral seat". The OP's question implies that it's a faulty seat, but some of the comments suggest it is not or not always, depending on the horse? My guess is that it has to do with a different pelvic alignment. Can someone enlighten me?
 
Capalldonn said:
I'm not familiar with the term "hot seat" and still not sure how it differs from a "neutral seat". The OP's question implies that it's a faulty seat, but some of the comments suggest it is not or not always, depending on the horse? My guess is that it has to do with a different pelvic alignment. Can someone enlighten me?
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Basically it means that you have a tendency to make a horse hot and full of itself!!

We say ‘electric bum’ meaning you ‘electrify’ the horse and it might buck or try and bolt simply out of exuberance
 
Parrotperson said:
Basically it means that you have a tendency to make a horse hot and full of itself!!

We say ‘electric bum’ meaning you ‘electrify’ the horse and it might buck or try and bolt simply out of exuberance
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I get this. However I'm more curious about the cause than the impact on the horse. That hasn't been answered yet. Thanks anyway.
 
Capalldonn said:
I get this. However I'm more curious about the cause than the impact on the horse. That hasn't been answered yet. Thanks anyway.
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For me when I was younger it was the tendency to ride with a strong hand and leg contact - the way I'd been taught in Germany. The UK riding school ponies when I came home went like they had a rocket up their backsides.
 
I think it’s so context dependent.

In lower levels and when I was at a RS as a child, I was told I have a hot seat / electric bum. I think it was purely that they didn’t shut down completely under me because I wasn’t riding like a sack of potatoes.

Now I have found I often have the reverse effect on sensitive horses. They tend to go quite quietly for me and sometimes I actually find that horses tend to go a little backward thinking with me from time to time so I don’t get quite as much natural impulsion as I used to. I think that’s confidence related since my neck injury. I’m just not riding quite as forward and openly and they can sense that.
 
Tension in the rider? Tension in both horse and rider?

A rider as LadyGascoyne says is riding sensitively on a horse that’s not used to it.

It could be many many things. 💁
 
Forgive me, but for my case, I did give the suggested cause. In a negative sense horses go forward for me because I was trained to do nothing to obstruct them.
The oldest slowest RS horse in a small indoor school will go quickly off the leg if you ride lots and lots of walk trot transitions. And even canter may come easy if you are heading for the exit door.
Horses like to know what they are doing. Most of them are used to beginning a lesson by walking large two or three circuits in each direction and NOT cantering since few beginners ask for canter.
 
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